Now, in this passage of scripture,
in Jeremiah chapter 31, beginning there at verse 22, we'll begin
there. And I've entitled the message
tonight, A New Thing in the Earth. A new thing in the earth. Obviously, I got that title from
verse 22, where it says, how long wilt thou go about O thou
backsliding daughter, for the Lord hath created a new thing
in the earth." A new thing. Now it's very important as we
go through this passage in this particular section of the prophecy
of Jeremiah as the Lord delivered these words to his prophet for
his people in that day and for us in this day, remember that
everything that's written here is for our benefit, just as much
as it was for their benefit. It's important to remember the
context here, that from chapter 30, this chapter division, and
this is where the message actually begins, this particular section. You know these chapter divisions
were not in the original, But, and I believe sometimes the King
James translator sort of messed up on the chapters, on the divisions,
because it kind of gives you an impression, you know, well,
something ends and something begins, and that's not always
the case. But here it is. Chapter 30, all the way to chapter
33, is a particular section of prophecy that is called the Book
of Consolation, the Book of Comfort. for these people of Judah who
were about to go into captivity for 70 years. And God, through
the prophet, is giving them the message of the gospel, which
is wrapped up, centered around, and founded upon the promise
of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his accomplishing
his great work of redemption for his people Which would include
God's people out of this nation. God's elect out of the Jews.
But also would include God's elect out of the Gentile nations.
You remember back up here in verse 10. He spoke to the nations.
Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations. Declare it in the aisles
of far off. This is a message for the nations. This is not just for one particular
people. This is the gospel. The good
news of how God saves sinners, which is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first now. God
worked through the Jews. He worked through Israel to accomplish
his purpose. In the New Covenant, the New
Testament, the first believers were Jews. But to the Greek or
the Gentile also. So understand that's the context
of what we're reading here. And so this is a prophecy of
Christ. This is a prophecy of the New
Covenant, which is the establishment in time of the everlasting covenant
of grace made before time. And it speaks of victory. This
whole language, it speaks of victory. Victory not just over
a country called Babylon, But victory over sin, victory over
Satan, victory over spiritual Babylon we could say. You know
Babylon is an emblem for the world and its false religion
and idolatry. This is a message of salvation.
That's what this is about. The goodness of God in his glory
in Christ. This is a message of returning.
Sinners returning to God by the power of God remember we read
that in verse 18 The prayer there of the prophecies turned down
me and I shall be turned men and women will not turn on their
own If left to ourselves, we will not turn to God No man can
come to me except the father which has sent me draw him And
then he says down here that he will return he says in verse
19 surely after that I was turned I repented. Faith, repentance,
all of those great glorious miracles of grace that are imparted to
us by the Holy Spirit in the new birth are miracles of God,
they're gifts of God. So all of this ultimately, everything
that he's talking about here now, and we don't want to ignore
the fact that when we read these passages that there is a fulfillment
of these temporally physically to the nation Judah in a limited
sense. But not in a full sense, not
in an ultimate eternal sense. That's reserved for the church.
The church of the living God, spiritual Israel. So all ultimately
fulfilled in the salvation of God's elect by His grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how the true people
of God then, this time, and now are encouraged to persevere in
the faith in spite of outward circumstances and suffering.
This is what was given to encourage men like Daniel, who knew the
Lord, to do in obedience what he did. To follow Christ and
to boldly give out those prophecies while he was in the court of
King of the kings of Babylon, and to stand boldly against idolatry
even into going into a lion's den. This is what encouraged
men like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to stand firm by the
power of God. And it wasn't by their power
or their goodness, but it was by the power and goodness of
God that they went into that fiery furnace. And it was all
about that fourth man that appeared, remember? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. And that's what this is all about.
You remember, look at verse 21. Sort of introducing this next
little section. He says, set thee up way marks. Those are road signs, sort of.
He says, and make high heaps. Those are like a guidepost. Road signs and guideposts. Set
thine heart toward the highway. That's the good way. That's the
right way. That's the way of grace. Christ said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Even the way which thou winnest.
In other words, the way back home is the same way that they
were taken out. And I liken that to this, that
they were taken out of Judah and brought into Babylon because
of God's judgment against their sin and their idolatry. Well,
the way back is the same way in this sense. It is a way of
grace and mercy, but it's also a way of God's judgment against
sin, not in our persons, but in the person of Christ. You
see, we don't get away from judgment. Understand that. We who know
Christ and who believe in Him, who are submitted to Him, we
don't get away from judgment. We've already been judged for
all our sins. When? When Christ died on that
cross of Calvary. Our sins were charged to Him.
And His righteousness is charged to us. So yes, it's a way of
mercy, a way of love, and a way of redemptive love, and a way
of grace, but not without judgment. And then he says, turn again,
O virgin of Israel. Now the only way that any of
us can claim spiritual purity or any purity at all, that's
what this virginity is, it's purity. The only way that you
or me or any of us can claim that is as we stand before God
in Christ, washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness
because why? We're sinners. We forsake by
nature. Adam fell. We fell in Adam. And
we were cast out with him. Alienated from God. And we're
born dead in trespasses and sins. And we come forth from the womb
speaking lies. That speaks of the fallen human
nature. That's what it speaks of. And
that's what he means. And the only way we can claim
any purity is as we stand before God in Christ. Now, if we claim
any purity in any other way, it's nothing but self-righteousness.
Now, that's all it is. You say, well, shouldn't we try
to be pure people, moral people? Well, yes. But you know as well
as I do that while in this world, we have to take our place with
the Apostle Paul. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? And of course,
I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And I know and believe
by God's grace that there's no condemnation in Him. So all of
this is for their return. All of this is a metaphor for
God bringing His elect people, sinners, saved by His grace,
redeemed by the blood of Christ, regenerated and called by the
Holy Spirit, all those who had been scattered by the fall, God
bringing them back to Himself in redemption and repentance.
Oh, Virgin of Israel, one who is truly pure in God's sight. I want to make this point clear
because I'll tell you, I want to make sure that you and I all
understand this. When I speak of our purity in
Christ, but the fact that we're not pure within ourselves. I'm not telling you that, well,
we're just play-acting here or that we're just pretending to
be pure or anything. No, sir. There's no play-acting
there. There's no fiction. There's no
pretending there. We who are in Christ are truly,
factually, legally, actually pure in the sight of God as we
stand in Christ. Even though we are actually,
factually, impure in ourselves Both are true, and I'm going
to tell you what helps us to understand that to some point.
It's the gospel truth of substitution and imputation and Satisfaction
Christ is our Christ is the Lord our righteousness now one day
our state You see what we are in ourselves will match our standing
in Christ and And that's when we go to be with the Lord. And
then I'll be free from any contamination of sin. I'll be free from any
influence of sin, any thought of sin. Listen, when you're glorified
with Him, you won't ever have an impure thought again. Now
you can't imagine what that's going to be like, and I can't
either. Beloved, it doesn't appear what we shall be, does it? Can
you imagine what it is to go through an hour Five minutes. And we go on down. And not have
an impure thought. And understand now, impure thoughts,
that's not just sexual thoughts or things like that. I mean,
it can be just a fleeting thought. When your mind is to be focused
on Christ and His Word, and you're thinking of something else. You're
thinking about what you're going to have to eat tonight. I've been there. What you're going to do tomorrow.
That's an impure thought. And you can't get away from it,
can you? I know I can't. Somebody said,
have you ever had any impure thoughts in the pulpit? Well,
sure I have. I've had to stop myself from saying things in
the pulpit. But it's a fight. It's a warfare,
you see. I'm just being honest with you. I do have purity in Christ. And
it's a real purity. God has judged me righteous in
the sight of God. So we're not pure by nature or
by our works, but we're made pure by the blood and righteousness
of Christ. And that's why when Paul spoke
to the church at Corinth, he said, I've espoused you to one
husband as a pure virgin, and you're to be loyal to him. Well,
our hearts are purified by faith in him, but that's the sprinkling
of his blood applied to our conscience whereby the Holy Spirit brings
us to faith in Christ and repentance of our works. Now these exiles
that he's preaching to here, he's prophesying to, they were
to set their hearts to the road that took them into exile, God's
judgment against their sin and idolatry, and to see that that
was the road that would bring them home. And of course, that's
a metaphor of Christ as our substitute and our surety, standing in our
place under the just judgment of God against our sins, having
our sins charged to Him. And we return home to God only
as we, by faith, God-given faith, see how we've been washed clean
and pure by His blood and how we're justified by His righteousness
imputed to us. Our way back home, the way to
grace. But now grace reigns through
righteousness. Now look, the Lord will show how this will
be accomplished in the establishment of the new covenant. That's what
he's getting ready to prophesy, especially the next section after
this one tonight. But he's going to show how this
is all going to be accomplished by the power and the goodness
and the grace of God in the establishment of the new covenant in the coming
of Christ into this world, the Messiah. And that's how these
people were to view that. The promised Messiah, to view
Him. The One who is to come. The God-Man who is to come. And
He will accomplish the ground of my salvation. And in the conversion
of His people who will be the fruit of the work of Christ. Now look at verse 22. The first
part here speaks of the sin and the depravity and the inability
of man to do anything for himself in the way of salvation. in the
way of faith or in the way of repentance. Here's man left to
himself, verse 22, how long wilt thou go about, that means wander
here and there, lost, O thou backsliding daughter. That's
a question that's given to make a point, not to get information. Because
it's been viewed since the fall of Adam how long that the daughter
here, which is the people of God, the elect of God. How long,
if left to ourselves, we'll wonder about lost backsliding? You say, how long? Well, if left
to ourselves, it'll be as long as we're alive. That's the sin
of man. That's man left to himself, none
righteous, none that doeth good. That's sin right there. That's
ruination right there. That's total depravity right
there. How long? Well, there's no end to our sin.
In other words, left to ourselves, if God doesn't step in and change
this thing, if God doesn't step in, if He doesn't invade our
space, so to speak, and take care of the problem, it's not
going to get taken care of. Isn't that right? I mean that's
it. We're doomed on our own. You
can beg, you can play music, you can tug at the heart strings,
you can try, you can wear them out with an invitation. How long? It's going to last and last and
last if God doesn't step in and intervene and with a sovereign
work and purpose do something for us. That's how long. And so that's what he says in
the next line. Look at this. For the Lord, that's
Jehovah, the God of grace now, the God of the covenant, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath created a new thing in the
earth. Wow. I thought Solomon said there's
nothing new under the sun. Well, you know, Solomon was talking
about natural things. All right. He was talking about
man fallen in this world. Remember he said that in Ecclesiastes
1.9, the wise man, he says, the thing that hath been, it's that
which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be
done, and there's no new thing under the sun. Solomon was talking
about man by nature there. And you know, sometimes we talk
about how bad things are getting, It's always been bad. I mean,
it may come to the forefront and we may be more aware of it
now, but there's nothing new. Man can't come up with anything
new and anything new he comes up with that he thinks is new
in his mind, it won't work. That is, it won't work as far
as getting him out of this sin problem. It won't work to save
him. Nothing new under the sun, but
God. This is kind of like one of those
but God passages. But God, the Lord, hath created
a new thing in the earth. If salvation is to come to any
sinner, God must do it. God must create it. That's what
He's saying. And I'll tell you what, it's
going to be new to man. The old ways of man, works religion,
free willism won't work. That's not new. That won't do.
But here's a new thing in the air. This phrase means something
that has never been before. Now what do you think he's talking
about? Well, he says it. A woman shall encompass a man. Now if you read commentaries,
and I don't know if you do or not, but there's several different
interpretations of that. A woman shall encompass a man.
Who is that woman? Who is that man? How will she
compass? That means surround that man. Well, I'm going to tell you right
now, you know who I believe. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's speaking of his incarnation. But not everybody agrees with
me. And I'll just give you some ideas here why I arrive at this
conclusion. And I believe it's solid as a
rock. The word woman there, for example, it's not the most common. Word for woman that's found in
the Old Testament. This word woman here is a word
that mainly speaks of woman as the weaker vessel. Somebody who
cannot, who cannot, doesn't have the strength to do what's required. Weak, defeated maybe. And the word man. You know the
most common word for man in the Old Testament, if you went back
to the original language, you know what it is? Anybody know?
It's Adam. Adam. But here it's not that
word. Here it's another word that means
a strong man who's ready to work, ready to act, and ready to conquer. Now some commentators say the
woman there, the weak woman there, is Judah. in captivity. And the
strong man there is Babylon. And what it's saying there is
a prophecy of how this weak woman will surround this strong man
and defeat him. I don't believe that's the case
for several reasons. Number one, Judah did not defeat
Babylon. King Cyrus of Persia did that. Actually, we'll say it this way,
God did it. Didn't he? But he didn't even
use Judah to do it. They were set free by another
conquering king who was stronger than Babylon at that time. The
Medo-Persian empire, the Medo-Persian army under King Cyrus was much
stronger than Babylon by that time when that conquering came.
So Babylon wasn't surrounded by a weak person there and conquered. So I don't believe that's what
it's talking about. Secondly, if Judah was the weak woman who
conquered the strong man Babylon, that wouldn't be anything new
in the earth because I'll tell you, you see that all through
the Old Testament, don't you? You see all kinds of examples
where weakness by the power of God overcame human strength. How about Gideon in the 300 who
conquered the Midianites? How about old little shepherd
boy David who conquered Goliath? That was the strength of God.
So if that were just something weak by the power of God conquering
something strong, that's not new. But here's something that's
never appeared before. And then he's prophesying of
what here? The new covenant. This is the
book of consolation. Well, what's he talking? He's
talking about the incarnation of Christ. That weak woman is
Mary. And that strong man ready to
act, ready to work, ready to conquer. is God in human flesh. Now granted, in His humanity,
He was still a tender plant, He was still a baby, but I want
to tell you something, He was still, even at that time, who
He was, who He is, and who He ever will be. Unto us a child
is born, but unto us a son is given. And the government was
upon his shoulder. Even that babe in the womb, surrounded
by that weak woman in that womb, the government was... You know,
the government of grace, the government of the church, the
salvation of the elect have always been upon his shoulder. Never
has been a time that it's been upon your shoulder. Or my shoulder. And you see, I know this is not
just talking about a fallen human being being born here, because
this is a man who's ready to act, ready to work, ready to
conquer. The only thing that an infant child who's born is
ready to do is ready to sin. Come forth from the womb, speaking
lies. Now that's right. I know a lot of people don't
like to hear that, but that's what the Bible says. The Bible's pretty
plain on that issue. This is Christ. This is great
as the mystery of godliness, God, manifest in the flesh. This is He who's born of the
virgin, conceived in the womb by the Holy Spirit. He's God-man. And I'll tell you, the government's
always been up on His shoulder. Old John Gill, the commentator,
he wrote about this man who was compassed by this woman. Here's
how he described it. A mighty one. A mighty man. The man who is Jehovah's fellow. That means God's equal. Conceived,
contained, and encompassed in the womb of the virgin. The woman
whose seed he was to be of. He's the seed of woman, not the
seed of man. And I believe that's emphasized
here. A woman shall compass a man. And this was a new, unheard of,
extraordinary thing. This was a creation. His humanity
was created. Now His deity was not created.
His deity has no beginning and no end, but the human body of
Christ was created for Him in the womb of the Virgin, by the
Holy Ghost. This is the human nature of Christ
formed and prepared by the power of the Holy Ghost without the
aid of man, and this is now mentioned as an argument and an encouragement
to the Jews to get back to your own land. God's got a purpose
here. He's bringing a Messiah into
this world, a new thing in the earth, that holy thing. And oh, the Messiah is born there
of a virgin as it was foretold of Him. This is Christ. This
is the person of Christ. And what's He going to do as
God-man? What did Isaiah say over here
in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 7? Of the increase of His government
and peace, there shall be no end. In other words, He's going
to be successful. And upon the throne of David,
that's Messiah-ship there, you see. and upon his kingdom to
order it. He didn't leave it in our hands,
thank God. He didn't leave it in our hands.
He orders it. And He establishes it with judgment and with justice,
that's His substitutionary death on the cross, as our surety,
having been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, from henceforth even forever. And the zeal of
the Lord of hosts will perform that. Do you know what that means?
That means God is so zealous for His own glory that it cannot
fail. So who is this man? He's the
one who's ready to act, ready to work, ready to conquer. He's our Savior. Man of sorrows. What a name. For the Son of God
who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Doesn't
that just make you just stand back and take notice? A new thing
in the earth. There's nothing new in this old
fallen, sinful world. Nothing new. It may get worse,
but that's not even new. It's just old things getting
worse. But here's a new thing created in the earth. And that new thing created in
the earth, that's our salvation. He is our salvation. Oh Simeon,
mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He's the Lord our righteousness.
Now look at the benefits and the blessings that come from
it. Look at verse 23. He says, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the Lord who cannot be defeated,
invincible God, the God of Israel, the God of those who prevail
with God. How do you prevail with God?
Look to Christ. Plead Christ. As yet they shall
use this speech in the land of Judah and the cities thereof
when I shall bring again their captivity, There is going to
be a new speech now. There is going to be a new word.
And what is it? The Lord bless thee, O habitation
of justice and mountain of holiness. The blessings of the Lord are
going to come from this man. This God-man. Who is encompassed
by this woman. And it is going to be a habitation
of justice. That is a habitation of righteousness. Do you know right now you live
in, if you're in Christ, you live in a habitation of righteousness. And nothing can penetrate that.
No charge that the devil himself or man can rail at you can penetrate
your habitation. You stand upon the rock Christ
Jesus and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And it's
a mountain of holiness. You're holy in him and you're
kept separate from the world by him. And you can claim that
even as you walk down the streets of this fallen world. As you
put up with this mess and the mess that's within yourself called
the flesh that you fight with every day. And that's the issue
here. As a result of the Messiah's
great work, spiritual Israel will speak of justice and holiness
found in Christ. Found in God's grace and mercy
in Christ. The habitation of righteousness. made so by God's grace. Then
look at verse 24. And there shall dwell in Judah
itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen,
and they that go forth with flocks. What's that talking about? The
husbandmen. That's the ministers of the gospel. That's the carrier
of the good news. They plant the seed. They spread
the seed of the good news. Laborers together with God in
His vineyard, calling the people to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, submit to Him and repent. That's what that's talking about.
They're like farmers. They plant, but they can't make
it grow. It takes the power of God to
do that. God gives the increase. And then look at verse 25. He
says, for I've satiated, I've satisfied the weary soul. I've replenished every sorrowful
soul. What did Christ say in His first message when He stood
on that mount and preached? Matthew chapter 5, he said, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They're
poor in spirit, but they have a possession. What's their possession? The kingdom of heaven. Think
about that. Blessed are they that mourn,
they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek, they'll
inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they'll be filled. Blessed are
the merciful, they obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
they'll see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted
for righteousness sake. That's the blessing. They'll
be satiated, satisfied. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness. We'll be like Christ. We're satisfied
in our hearts right now with Him, aren't we? He's all we need. That's why we sing that chorus.
Jesus Christ is all I need. All I need. Wisdom, righteousness,
power, glory, all of it. He's all I need. And here's the
thing about it. He's all that God requires. So
that's the blessings. Verse 26. Now Jeremiah received
this message either in a dream or in a vision, and it was like
sleep. And he says, upon this, when
I saw this, I awaked and I beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me. Don't you love sweet sleep? As you get older, it really becomes
even more precious, doesn't it? You go out and you work a day
and you come in and you know you've got to get up early the
next morning and oh, if the Lord will just grant me that sweet
sleep. Well, here it is. What's Jeremiah
talking about? He's talking about resting in
Christ. That's a sweet sleep, isn't it?
Look at verse 27. See, all of this, this is that
peace which passes understanding. Joy and peace in believing. And
then he says in verse 27, behold the days come. Now he's talking
about the future now. Saith the Lord that I will sow
the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man.
Now there's that word, the common word man. And with the seed of
beast. Now the seed of man means a population. A population. And what he's talking
about is the salvation of the people of God. It's another way,
I'll tell you what, it's another way of stating what is stated
in Isaiah 53, what is it, verse 10 there, he shall see, or verse
11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. God's kingdom is going to be
populated with a people, a people whom God chose before the foundation
of the world, a people whom Christ redeemed by His precious blood,
a people who are born again, regenerated, and called by the
Spirit, and a people who will enter glory by the power and
grace of God. He said, I'm going to sow it
with the seed of man. Not one sinner for whom Christ
died will be missing. There will be no vacancies. And
then with the seed of beasts, the beast there refers to possessions. The more cattle, for example,
or the more sheep a man owned, the richer he was said to be. And what he's talking about here
is all the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. We're
blessed with all spiritual blessedness in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Listen, it's not that you're
going to have any more than I have or I'm going to have any more
than you have. Listen, that's a tool. You know this thing about
earned rewards and some kind of a hierarchy of positions or
possessions in heaven. You know what that is? That's
a tool of the devil to get people in line in a legal way. That's exactly what it is. But
no, if you've got Christ, you have it all. What more do you
need? What more do you want? If you're in Him. And then look
at verse 28. He says, it shall come to pass
that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break
down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict. That's
God's work now. So will I watch over them to
build and to plant, saith the Lord. Now God sent Judah into
captivity. for the purposes of holding them
together as a nation, but not just to leave them there, but
to bring them out. So you do see the physical fulfillment
of that 70 years after this when they return to their land. But
it's only in a limited sense. They didn't stay together. They
were still conquered. What's he talking about here?
Out of the destruction, that physically God would bring through
the building up of the church which is the planning of the
Lord. In other words, they're going to be destroyed, the church
is going to come out of that, and you can liken it to this
too. It's a metaphor of our conversion. God brings us down in conviction
as sin, not to destroy us, but to bring us to Christ and build
us up in and by Him. That's why He does it. And then
look at these last two verses, 29 and 30. In those days they
shall say no more. The fathers have eaten the sour
grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone
shall die for his own iniquity. Every man that eateth the sour
grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Now what is it talking
about? Well, I believe if you keep this
in the context, of the prophecy of the new covenant, how it's
going to be, compare it to the old covenant. Under the old covenant,
God dealt with Israel as a nation. There was punishment that was
brought upon the whole nation. And sometimes there was, very
few times, but sometimes there was prosperity given to the nation. But whenever the nation And when
we talk about the nation, we're talking about the leaders from
the king, the nobleman, the princes, the priest, and the majority
of the people. Whenever the nation disobeyed
God, everybody within that nation, and even their children, sometimes
even into the next generation, were punished in a physical and
temporary way, temporal way. Because God was dealing with
them as a nation. For example, even the remnant
of grace. Jeremiah is a believer. But he's suffering just like
the rest of the nation under these physical torments and these
physical conquerings. In fact, when it's all over,
he has to flee to Egypt. So in essence, the whole nation
was punished. But it's not going to be like
that under the New Covenant. You see, God is not dealing with
nations under the New Covenant. He's dealing with individuals. His people. God does not deal
in salvation with... I'm not saying God doesn't deal
with nations. He does. But I'm saying God does not deal
in salvation with nations. He deals with individuals. All
who refuse to believe in Christ shall be damned for their sins.
That's what he means here. Everyone shall die for his own
iniquity. In other words, if you stand
before God without Christ, it doesn't matter if you were an
American or an Australian or an Englishman or whatever. What
nation you come from has no bearing. You see, the only thing that
matters when you stand before God is do you have a righteousness
that equals and answers the demands of His law and justice? And if
you don't have Christ, you don't have one. The only thing that
matters when you stand before God is, is there any sin charged
to my account? If you don't have Christ, all
sin is charged to your account. And you'll die for your iniquity.
Whatever you plead will not come up to snuff. Whatever sour grape
you eat, your teeth will be set on edge. You have no substitute.
You have no surety. But under the new covenant, all
who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what nation
they come from, Jew or Gentile, shall be saved from their iniquity,
shall be saved from their sins. That's the grace of God. All
right.